Blessed with a husky, blunt-addled voice, agile wordplay and rugged good looks, the MC had spread his street-corner charisma liberally across Enter …, notably on his own, self-titled solo track, and this 1995 hit perfectly harnessed his rugged-yet-smooth appeal. That Meth was the first member of the Wu to release a solo album – 1994’s The Tical – was hardly surprising. quickly rose to the top of the Clan’s catalogue.ģ Method Man ft Mary J Blige – I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need to Get By (Razor Sharp remix) Instantly resonant – the Wu’s junior affiliate Shyheim parlayed Deck’s “Life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough” line into an entire song – C.R.E.A.M. Over a melancholic piano loop from t he Charmels’ 1967 soul ballad As Long As I’ve Got You, Rae’s gruff opening lines – “I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side / Stayin’ alive was no jive” – set the scene as he and Inspectah Deck describe a harsh youth spent slinging drugs in the high-stakes pursuit of paper. While the titular acronym, which, as Method Man reminds us on the hook, stands for Cash Rules Everything Around Me, was quickly adopted as hip-hop slang for boatloads of dough (not least by the Wu themselves – witness Raekwon admiring the C.R.E.A.M.-making aptitude of Julio Iglesias on Criminology), this poignant study of ’hood capitalism (also from the crew’s debut) is no Puffy-style shopping spree. Released in May 1993 on Loud Records after a DIY pressing the previous year earned the crew a Killa Bee buzz, the Wu’s opening salvo – featured on their instant classic album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) – was the perfect east coast antidote to Dre and Snoop’s crisp G-funk or, as GZA would put it, “the dirtiest thing in sight”. With eight distinctive voices (an incarcerated Masta Killa had yet to sign up) ravaging an RZA track powered by that trusty trumpet glissando from the JB’s The Grunt, quotable lines abound, from Method Man’s playful Irene Cara impression to GZA’s bitter takedown of his unappreciative former label Cold Chillin’ and the wider music industry henceforth “a mountain climber who plays an electric guitar” was the de facto stereotype of the clueless A&R. From the second Inspectah Deck attacks his opening verse ( “I smoke on the mic like smokin’ Joe Frazier/ The hellraiser, raising hell with the flavour”), it’s easy to see why the clued-up radio caller at the song’s start is desperate for a repeat fix of the debut single from the mysterious, kung fu-crazy Staten Island crew.

Wu tang clan cream forever snapback